virtualbox.org

Hi all

Running a 32-bit Windows7 virtual image on my Macbook Pro (OSx 10.8.5... if you need more information pertaining to my computer, let me know).

I currently am booted off of a flash drive that has OSx installed on it; my hard drive/boot disk are broken and so I'm trying to install & run the program SpinRite onto a flash drive so that I can try to access my hard drive. I downloaded the SpinRite.exe on the virtual image but I need to put it onto a flash drive; unfortunately, Windows won't mount the flash drive I have in there. I have the flash drive formatted as FAT and everything, and Windows recognizes that it's there, but unfortunately when I go down to the bottom of the VI window and click the "USB devices" button (or whatever it is) and select the flash drive, I get the error:

"Failed to attach the USB device SanDisk Firebird USB Flash Drive [0126] to the virtual machine windows 7 a.
USB device 'SanDisk Firebird USB Flash Drive' with UUID {92eb4370-5eb4-4399-a454-781108b4a57e} is already captured by the virtual machine 'windows 7 a'.

Result Code:
NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0x80070057)
Component:
HostUSBDevice
Interface:
IHostUSBDevice {173b4b44-d268-4334-a00d-b6521c9a740a}
Callee:
IConsole {8ab7c520-2442-4b66-8d74-4ff1e195d2b6}"

Then, when I go to "Devices and Printers" and troubleshoot the fact that the flash drive is acknowledged but not connected, I'm told that the problem is that I need to "reinstall the device driver", but when I try to fix that it doesn't work.

I have the extension pack downloaded on the host, if that makes a difference.

Thank you! Let me know if you need more info to diagnose the issue.

OK, I'm a little bit confused. I'll try to decipher your post so we're on the same page.

1. You are "booting the MBP from a flash drive" (the SanDisk Firebird?) "that has OSX installed on it". This is doable, by all means.
2. You "downloaded SpinRite on the virtual image". What virtual image? Are you running VirtualBox with a Windows VM on the flash drive? That would be doable as well.
3. You then state that (for the SpinRite.exe) you "need to put it onto a flash drive". Your VM is in the flash drive, and either
   1. you downloaded it in your Windows VM (my guess), or
   2. you downloaded it in your guest OSX host, which means it is already in the flash drive, or
   3. you have a second flash (the SanDisk Firebird) which you want to make it bootable using SpinRite (?)

To me it looks like you're trying to do what the Wikipedia article says about running SpinRite on a Mac, which is: run VirtualBox on your Mac, that runs a DOS VM, that boots from the SpinRite iso, that checks your MBP dead HD. Right?

In that case, it maybe worth watching (carefully) a tutorial video, or reading another tutorial I found. This is advanced topics though and you should be very careful, because besides the physical damage of your HD, there is the logical damage that can occur if you don't know what you're doing.

Why don't you try the built-in tools for your Mac, like DiskUtility, or a native solution like Data Rescue 3 or TechTool Pro?